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LÜNEBURG: 1700-1702
When Johann Sebastian reached this North-German musical center, he was well received because of his uncommonly beautiful soprano voice, and he was immediately appointed to the select body of singers who formed the 'Mettenchor' (Mattins Choir). Their obligations to sing were many, and Johann Sebastian thus had a unique chance to participate in choral and orchestral performances on a scale unknown in the poorer Thuringian towns of his homeland. He was also freely permitted to study the fine library of music in the Gymnasium, which included some of the best examples of German church music.
Johann Sebastian soon lost his soprano voice, but was able to make himself useful as a violinist in the orchestra, and as an accompanist at the harpsichord during choir rehearsals.
During this period he was fortunate in meeting Georg Böhm, organist of the Johanniskirche at Lüneburg, who himself had been a pupil of the famous organist Jan Adams Reinken in Hamburg, and was a friend of the Bach family in Ohrdruf. Böhm introduced Johann Sebastian to the great organ traditions of Hamburg, to which city Johann Sebastian made several pilgrimages on foot. He also came under the influence of French instrumental music when, through his great proficiency on the violin, he played at the Court of Celle, 50 miles south of Lüneburg. Though distinctly German in its construction and outer appearance, Celle Castle was known as a 'miniature Versailles' for its rich interiors and then-current musical tastes.
When he was nearly eighteen, Johann Sebastian, considerably enriched by these musical experiences, decided he would try to find employment as an organist in his native land of Thuringia. He was greatly interested in an organ under construction in the new church of Arnstadt, and as members of his family had been professionally active in the district for generations, he felt he had a good chance of getting the post. So in 1702 he left Lüneburg for the South.
Piano or harpsichord?
The issue of whether to play Bach on the piano or harpsichord doesn't seem to trouble many people: what seems to be a problem for many is whether other people should play Bach on the piano or the harpsichord, and to which they themselves prefer to listen. The pianoforte (or fortepiano as its early forms are now called) was invented by Cristofori in Italy during Bach's life, and came to the composers's attention only in his last years; perhaps the most characteristic feature of the modern piano, the sustain pedal, was not to be invented for the better part of a century. Although Bach examined and tried some early test models at the Court of Fredrick the Great at Potsdam in 1747, and some have argued persuasively that parts of his Musical Offering were conceived with test runs on the Emperor's new pianos in mind, the vast bulk of Bach's keyboard literature clearly predates his encounter with the fortepiano, let alone the advent of the modern concert instrument, and thus cannot credibly be construed as having been written as "piano music."
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